Free Personal Directive Form Alberta: Where to Get OPG5521 and How to Fill It In Correctly

Good news if you're looking for a free Personal Directive form in Alberta: the provincial government publishes one, it's legally sound, and it costs nothing. The form is OPG5521, available from the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT) via alberta.ca. The catch isn't getting the form — it's filling it in and executing it so that hospitals and care facilities will actually honour it. Most of the value is in the details below.

Where to Get the Official Form

Download OPG5521 (with its instruction sheet) from the Government of Alberta's personal directive page. Print it — you'll need a physical copy, because Alberta does not accept electronic signatures or virtual witnessing for estate planning documents. Wet ink on paper only.

You don't have to use the government form. Alberta law allows a custom-drafted Personal Directive with the same legal content, which is what lawyers produce for complex situations. But for most adults, the statutory form covers the essentials.

What the Form Asks You to Decide

Work through these decisions before you sit down with a pen:

• Your Agent. The person who will make personal and healthcare decisions if you lose capacity. Choose someone who knows your values, lives close enough to act, and can stay steady in a crisis.
• Alternate Agents. Always name at least one. If your primary Agent is unreachable, deceased, or unwilling, the alternate steps in — without this, you may get the default family hierarchy or a court application instead.
• Your instructions. Medical treatments you'd accept or refuse, preferences about where you live, personal care, and related matters. Be specific — "no heroic measures" is too vague for clinicians to act on; "I do not want to be kept on a ventilator long-term if there is no reasonable prospect of recovery" gives your Agent something to work with.
• Capacity assessment method. The form lets you designate who determines that you've lost capacity. If you name an assessor, they complete Schedule 2 (with a physician or psychologist). If you don't, two service providers — one a physician or psychologist — complete Schedule 3.

Executing It So It's Valid

This is where free forms go wrong. The rules:

1. You must be 18 or older and capable of understanding the document when you sign.
2. Exactly one witness, a capable adult, present when you sign.
3. The witness cannot be: your Agent, an alternate Agent, the spouse or adult interdependent partner of any Agent, or your own spouse or adult interdependent partner. A friend, neighbour, or coworker works.
4. Sign in wet ink, and write the date on the document. A missing date is one of the most common rejection reasons.
5. Make copies for your Agent, alternates, and your doctor. Keep the original accessible — never in a bank safe deposit box, which can be frozen after death and is useless in an emergency.

No court filing, notarization, or government registration is required for the directive to be legally binding.

Two Free Extras Worth Doing

Register with the OPGT (optional, free). Alberta's Personal Directives Registry records that your directive exists and stores your Agent's contact information. You submit only a registration form — the directive itself is never sent in. In an emergency, a hospital can find your Agent even if nobody present knows them. Expect a follow-up letter requesting signed consent to finalize the registration.

Get a Green Sleeve (optional, free). Alberta Health Services distributes the green plastic pouch that holds your directive copy behind a Goals of Care Designation order, stored on or near your refrigerator — the place Alberta paramedics are trained to look during a 911 call. Order one through AHS or ask your doctor's office.

Where the Free Form Stops

The government form gets you a legally valid document. What it doesn't give you:

• The clinical translation. Doctors act on Goals of Care Designation orders (the R/M/C codes), not on legal prose. You still need the advance care planning conversation with your physician, who writes and signs that order.
• Guidance on the hard questions. Choosing between family members as Agents, writing instructions specific enough to be useful, anticipating blended-family conflicts.
• The full document set. A Personal Directive covers personal and healthcare decisions only. Your finances need a separate Enduring Power of Attorney, and your estate needs a will.
• The activation playbook. What your Agent actually does at the hospital, how Schedule 2 or 3 capacity declarations work, when the directive's authority ends.

If your situation is straightforward, the free form plus the OPGT registry plus a Green Sleeve may be genuinely enough. If you want the missing layers — the GCD code decoder, the Green Sleeve checklist, the agent-selection worksheets, and the step-by-step from signing to hospital bedside — that's what the Alberta Advance Directive & Living Will Kit adds on top of the free form.

The Bottom Line

The official Alberta Personal Directive form is free, and free is the right price for the document itself. Spend your effort where the failures actually happen: picking the right Agent, writing specific instructions, witnessing correctly, and making sure the finished document can be found and acted on in an emergency.

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